Six Articles are almost free from local or temporal colouring. Not quite, no doubt, for that would be well nigh impossible, but largely so; and this is another principle of great importance in ecclesiastical organisation. To base church fellowship on assent to a theology saturated with scholasticism and medieval philosophy is as unwise as it would be to base it upon assent to a theology saturated with the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, or the synthetic philosophy of Herbert Spencer, or the theory of evolution. "Utility" and "Evolution" are, probably, not the last words of philosophy and science. Coming generations, perchance, will throw their moral conceptions, and their theories of the universe, into quite other forms. But religion is the same in its main essential features from age to age, and however much it is influenced and shaped, and must be, by the prevailing philosophy when it is formulated into a system of theology, yet for the purposes of church fellowship its doctrines should be practical and simple, as free as possible from the speculative conceptions of the day, and expressed in common forms of speech. It is "in our own tongue, wherein we were born," that we would have stated, as articles of faith, "the wonderful works of God."

But specially we find three other principles suggested by the name, and underlying the Six Articles of Religion. The first is, that universality is the key to the right interpretation of the Gospel. This key the Scriptures themselves afford, commencing, as they do, with the history of the race, and the promises made to the patriarchs affecting the whole family of man. This key prophets afterwards apply to the purposes and plans of God, and the destiny of His kingdom on earth; and the apostles, too, when the Lord had risen, and His commission had startled them and filled them with new aims, were soon able to apply it also. The failure to use this key, and the disposition to "particularism," was the secret of the perverse and mischievous conduct of the Jews towards our Lord, and was indeed the main characteristic of the later Judaism. So our fathers rejected the doctrine of a "limited atonement" as "particularistic," and, in their judgment, inconsistent with the anticipations of prophecy, and contrary to the very genius of the Gospel. Sin is universal; the sacrifice for sin is of universal efficacy. Redemption, in its provisions, is as wide as the ruin, and as extensive as the fall. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared." Christ "tasted death for every man."

The second special principle is that no theology is to be accepted which contravenes the moral convictions of the race. "The perpetual obligation of the moral law" looks strange to us, perhaps, as an article of religion. But there was great wisdom in adding it to our creed, because theology has sometimes been in conflict with morality, and doctrines have been held which it is hard, if not impossible, to reconcile with the equity and rectitude of God's moral government. The healthy moral sense of Luther rejected the doctrine of "Indulgences" as blunting the conscience and debasing the life. The doctrines of unconditional election and eternal reprobation have been sometimes thus perversely held, and though both would be excluded, together with that of particular redemption, by the first general principle, i.e., because not practical, and by the first special principle, i.e., because opposed to the universality of the Gospel, they were specially objectionable to our fathers as

tending to subvert the foundations of God's moral government, or rather as contrary to the deep moral convictions of mankind. No theology is of any great practical value if divorced from ethics; and no ethics are sound and healthy unless baptized in theology. The interpenetration of the one with the other is the true ethics, and the true theology.

The third special principle suggested by the name, and underlying the articles, is, direct divine authority must be our warrant for religious ritual. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are not ordinances of human but of divine appointment. Only the power which appoints can essentially modify or change the ritual of religion. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are to be observed as instituted, the one by immersion in token of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the other by breaking bread and drinking wine in commemoration of Christ, whose body was broken, and whose blood was shed, for our redemption. Divine warrant for the ceremony and rite carries with it also divine warrant for all that is essential thereto; and the form of baptism and the subject can hardly be questions for human determination; nor is a supernatural and magical efficacy to be ascribed either to baptism or the Lord's supper.

and

These, then, as it appears to us, are some of the chief principles of the General Baptists as suggested by our name and Articles of Religion. The appeal to our history only confirms what has been said. All along, from the beginning, we are Protestants; and we look with great disapproval and indignation upon the present prevalence of a popish ritual in what should be a Protestant Establishment; we are Dissenters, anticipate that day, not now so far off as it seemed a little while back, when in England (there will be free churches in a free state; we are General Baptists of the New Connexion, and we rejoice to see the recognition and full avowal of the universal provision of the gospel not only among our Wesleyan brethren, but in other churches once reputed to be and still by trust-deed and Confessions of Faith required to be "particularistic;" and still further we hail with pleasure the study and teaching of Christian ethics in Universities and Theological Institutions, and the more complete interpenetration of morality with religion, and religion with morality; and yet, further, we watch, with increasing interest, the increasing restlessness of churches that cry out under the bondage of Calvinistic Confessions, or as Matthew Arnold severely says, "lie in the iron grasp of the heavy-handed Protestant Philistine," and we wish them larger freedom, wider and broader visions of truth, ampler room for the play of generous and kindly human emotion, and deeper and truer love for the whole race of men. It remains for us, however, to recognise the high vantage-ground upon which the simple piety and far-seeing practical wisdom of our fathers placed us, to be more loyal to our principles, to act upon them heartily and zealously in the wise and faithful administration of our church and denominational institutions, and in the free and full proclamation of the gospel far and wide in our land. Time is on our side; the current of thought in our day is in our favour. There is a great future for us, or for churches of similar principles. The bondage of scholasticism and particularism is passing away, and all Christian communities are summoned to declare, as all the world is preparing to hear, the “glad tidings of great joy which are unto all people."

Ministerial Friendships."

BY REV. W. H. TETLEY, DERBY.

THE theme on which I am to offer you this morning a few general reflections is scarcely in accord with what may be inoffensively called a conventional standard. The papers usually submitted to ministerial gatherings are devoted, as a rule, to the consideration of ministerial work. How we may prepare for the pulpit: what course to take in administering the affairs of the church: how to accomplish pastoral visitation plans for Bible classes, and expository pulpit teaching: methods for regular church work, and schemes for special church effort : these, and kindred subjects, are generally brought into the arena of debate and conversation when those who are engaged in the work of the ministry hold their larger or smaller meetings. Our work is so great, and its responsibilities are so momentous, that we are perfectly content to let questions of a merely personal character abide in the shade; and before the solemnity and interest of our relations to our great vocation, the importance and obligation of our relations one to another sink into comparative insignificance. Yet even these relations are not without a strong claim upon our sympathy and thoughtfulness. They are surely capable of culture and improvement. We may find in them many unappropriated blessings, and discover, it may be where least expected, the possibilities of help and pleasure which our care and attention will turn to good account.

The existence of a strong sentiment of personal friendship in the ministerial ranks of our own body, needs no demonstration. It is one of the things publicly recognized now at most of our representative assemblies, and a thing of which we need be at no loss to produce some very illustrious examples. Some of us may remember a time when-as judged by what was seen and heard in the Old Mission House at Moorgate Street, and in one or two provincial centres during the years when an Autumnal Session for the Baptist Union was on its trial-it required a good deal of faith to credit some of our leading divines with anything like affectionate esteem for one another, or with the slightest disposition toward friendly interest in the younger and obscurer brethren of our denomination. There are lingering echoes of biting words, of stinging reproaches, and of disdainful criticism about some of those old haunts of Baptist advocacy and deliberation, which even the transformations of secular use, and modern architecture, have scarcely silenced; and quite within the period to which one's own start in public life belongs there have been not a few occasions of ministerial clamour and bitterness, which wore any aspect but that of friendship. It is just possible that true friendship was sometimes disguised in these things, and that when exclusive cliques and select coteries bristled with hostile array against each other, it was only a sportive fashion of exhibiting the highest appreciation. It may be that the absence from denominational affairs of what, in diplomatic phrase, is called the entente cordiale, was merely

A paper read before a Minister's and Student's Conference at Rawdon College last June.

MINISTERIAL FRIENDSHIPS.

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accidental, and is not to be construed as a sign that there were no exchanges of good will between the chiefs of our ministry. Be this as it may, the state of things to which these words refer no longer exists. We have now reached an era of complimentary speech, and frank avowal of personal attachment. Our representative assemblies to-day seem to glow with cordiality and mutual admiration. Transitions of official appointment are made amid the kindliest utterances of personal feeling; votes of thanks are framed like beatitudes, and terms of resolution are pronounced like benedictions; while even our practical efforts to accomplish work that shall be worthy of our name, and equal to our responsibilities, are carried forward under the stimulus of a testimony which reflects loving confidence and genial approbation.

None of us, I venture to think, will deny the better influence and greater charm of this denominational condition. Undesirable as it may be that we should exaggerate our courtesies, or degenerate in our exercise of friendship into mere sycophancy or self-congratulation, we cannot regret that the asperities of an old order of things have declined, and that in lieu of those unsparing combats which formerly ruffled the serenity of our public deliberations, and obstructed the progress of our business, we have now become familiar with the touching tribute that tells of pleasant years of unbroken friendship between beloved and honoured brethren, and find it no surprise to hear from the lips of our recognized leaders hearty words of loving loyalty for those who have been their companions in the labour, and their fellow-soldiers in the warfare of the gospel of Christ. That these newer manners are not entirely free from danger, and not wholly beyond the reach of amendment, is only too patent to those who have watched their growth: but whatever objections may be urged against these things by cynics and satirists, it cannot be denied that they are a source of strength and confidence to men who are called upon to occupy positions of great respon-sibility; and that in the effect produced, both upon the church and the world, there is a decided balance of advantage on the side of everything that displaces fault-finding, strife, and mere critical display, for the manifestation of earnest sympathy, true affection, and fervent regard.

Quite apart, however, from anything that has transpired within the range of our own observation, there are other indications that ministerial friendships are by no means unreal or impracticable. It does not follow that because ministers of religion naturally cultivate a certain independence of character, and are all more or less absorbed in their own work, and may possibly be not altogether free from the honest emulations of public life, that they are necessarily incapable of taking anything like a deep and unselfish interest in one another. It is true they are mostly busy men, beset with many temptations to concentrate their energies on the claims that lie immediately around them, and having but limited opportunities for the enjoyment of that restful communion in which true friendship always thrives; but when the life story of some of these busy men has to be told it is the ministerial friend who tells it, enforcing its lessons of industry and endurance, supplying a true estimate of its varying excellencies, affording an insight into its use of the succour and strength of human brotherhood, and proving what splendid service may be rendered to a good man's memory in friendship's name. This

was the service rendered but yesterday for one deeply revered by some of us, though he did not carry our banner, who has passed to the "quiet resting-place" on which his own chastened eloquence has so often shed its subdued and tender light. This was what the devout Birrell did for the robust and leonine Brock, when, with all the tender grace and poetic feeling of his finished style he gave to our churches the memorial portraiture of a life in which, with all its labour and solicitude, the sympathies of a sincere friend were so truly exemplified. This was what has been done by innumerable biographers of men distinguished alike for their piety, their learning, their usefulness in the ministerial calling ; this is the service which will doubtless be perpetuated from generation to generation in grateful remembrance of those who, all through their earnest vocation, were true to friendship's rule.

I cannot be content, however, to treat my theme as though it only found illustration in our public life, or as though it derived all its importance from the pages of ecclesiastical biography. The subject is one which possesses a practical interest, and comes home to us on absolutely personal grounds. Most likely when we began our college course our only ministerial friend was the pastor under whose care we found our way into church membership, and under whose direction we began to use those gifts of utterance which in the narrow circle of our early association were held in such undoubted admiration. He no doubt was kind and faithful, helping us by his wider knowledge and larger experience, and even in the exercise of that authority which comes of the pastoral position, never ignoring our claim to indulgence and largehearted consideration. But during the years of our College life we found our number of ministerial friends increasing. Brought into contact with brethren in different ways; sent from college for their pulpit deliverance occasionally, when overtaken by some personal or domestic emergency; submitted, year by year, to their brief supremacy as examiners; or meeting them on terms of easy familiarity on festal holidays, and listening" with bated breath and whispered humbleness," through a pugent haze of slowly burning honey-dew or cavendish, to their oracular judgments, we find ourselves, after a lapse of time, quite rich in ministerial acquaintances. Then when our College days are over, and no longer embosomed amid the felicities of his hill-side home, we stand face to face with the responsibility of pastoral toil, we take hope and solace from the remembrance that our companions are with us on the field of labour, and that amongst those who found in us, as we found in them, a helpful affinity during the years spent within these walls, we shall have true friends on whom we may depend for counsel and encouragement, as the vicissitudes of our course come and go; and in intercourse with whom we may find that Jeremy Taylor's view of the resources of friendship is not overdrawn when he quaintly testifies that "It is the alloy of our sorrows, the ease of our passions, the discharge of our oppressions, the sanctuary of our calamities, the counsellor of our doubts, the clarity of our minds, the emission of our thoughts, the exercise and improvement of what we meditate.”

It may be taken for granted, too, that outside the circle of our College associations, or our denominational activities, we shall find many valued ministerial friendships. Brethren connected with other churches,